Mark Stevenson

Mark Stevenson (born 1971) is a London-based British author, comedian, businessman, public speaker and futurologist, as well as a former semi-professional musician. He is Chief Operating Officer and a founder of Flow Associates, a cultural learning agency^[1] and a principal at ReAgency, a science communications agency.^[2] He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.^[3] Stevenson's recent book, An Optimist's Tour of the Future, was released in the United Kingdom in January 2011 (February 2011 in the United States).^[4]

Education

Stevenson graduated from the University of Salford in 1992 with a first-class honors degree in Information Technology.^[5]

Early career

Stevenson began his career working for Ovum, an information technology think tank. There, he co-authored reports on e-commerce and smart card technology and edited material related to CASE (computer-aided software engineering).^[6]

After leaving Ovum, Stevenson worked as a freelancer, consulting primarily in the field of cryptography.

Throughout this period, Stevenson was also a semi-professional musician. As a founding member of the band Clear, he co-wrote both music and lyrics, sang and played bass. The band's sole album, Coming Around, had the unique distinction of being funded by a company founded by the members but owned in part by the band's fans. The album, recorded in 2004, was produced by Andy Metcalfe at the studios of Glenn Tilbrook; it was mastered at Abbey Road. Though now defunct, the band occasionally does reunion concerts.^[7]

Comedy

After leaving Clear, Stevenson turned to stand-up comedy. His stand-up material is primarily focused on science. He has appeared at many comedy clubs, festivals and other venues.^[8] And although his current duties as businessman and author preclude a full-time career in comedy, he still occasionally makes appearances at clubs and on programs. He recently (November 2010) did a spot on BBC Radio 4's long-running program You and Yours.^[9]

Writing

Stevenson recently released a book entitled An Optimist's Tour of the Future (published by Profile Books in January 2011 in the UK and by Avery in February 2011 in the United States), which predicts that invention and innovation can help overcome several of humanity's current problems.^[10]

Stevenson is also a playwright, having co-authored (with Jack Milner) One Thing Led to Another, a play in casting phase as of January 2011.

Current Activities

Stevenson continues his roles at Flow Associates and ReAgency. Following the success of his book, he has recently (2011) also become internationally popular as a public speaker. Upcoming engagements include being the keynote speaker at The Licensing Executives Society conference (New Zealand, April 2012)^[11] and the Space Foundation's National Space Symposium (USA, April 2012).

Stevenson is also launching a new organization to promote the ideals of pragmatic, solutions-oriented optimism as espoused in his book. The League of Pragmatic Optimists (aka LOPO)^[12] was slated to hold its inaugural event in London in October of 2011, with future chapters of the organization planned worldwide. A chapter in Cambridge/Boston (Massachusetts, USA) was already in pre-launch phase as of September 2011.^[13]

References

1. ^ http://flowassociates.com/wordpress/who-we-are/
2. ^ Kohn, Marek (7 January 2011). "An Optimist’s Tour of the Future". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/10b547c4-19e2-11e0-b921-00144feab49a.html#axzz1BFJZN6sZ. Retrieved 17 January 2011. 
3. ^ http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/journal/features/features/reasons-to-be-cheerful
4. ^ Kohn, Marek (7 January 2011). "An Optimist’s Tour of the Future". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
5. ^ http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/mark-stevenson/0/334/448
6. ^ http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/beth+barling/heather+stark/mark+stevenson/ovum+evaluates3a+on-line+commerce/3332411/
7. ^ http://www.clearweb.org/
8. ^ http://www.comedycv.co.uk/markstevenson/index.htm
9. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w190t
10. ^ Turney, Jon (15 January 2011). "An Optimist's Tour of the Future by Mark Stevenson – review". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/15/optimist-future-mark-stevenson-review. Retrieved 16 January 2011. 
11. ^ http://www.lesi2012.org/speakers.aspx
12. ^ http://leagueofpragmaticoptimists.com/
13. ^ http://www.meetup.com/League-of-Pragmatic-Optimists/

Persondata
Name	Stevenson, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1971
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death